Zika virus and abortion: The newest controversy over life

The massive increase of microcephaly cases in Brazil, apparently linked to the rapidly spreading mosquito borne virus, Zika virus, during the past several months has brought the already controversial topic of abortion into the debate.

Aedes aegypti/CDC

In Brazil, abortion laws are considered restrictive, illegal unless the woman is raped or her life is threatened, but with the recently declared public health emergency declaration of Zika virus hovering, pro-abortion activists are calling on legal terminations for infected pregnant women.

Lawyer and spokesperson for the Latin American women’s rights group CLADEM, Beatriz Galli said infected women should have the right to choose:

“We do not have a diagnostic tool which is 100 percent secure… As it is a very uncertain future, women cannot be forced to carry forward a pregnancy in this crisis, this epidemic, or even pandemic as the WHO describes”

In addition, Amanda Klasing of Human Rights Watch says “In a region where more than half of all pregnancies in the region are unplanned, governments need to make contraception — and even abortion — accessible to women in order to prevent the most harmful impact of the untreatable virus.”

Thankfully,not everyone agrees with this viewpoint.

Pro-life groups, American Life League and Stop Planned Parenthood International (STOPP) have noticed the dramatic call offering as a solution to the current crisis in Central and South America the deliberate destruction of the preborn baby via abortion.

Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League and founder of STOPP International, stated:

As the Zika virus problem grows and the World Health Organization declares a global emergency, there is a scary response developing. More and more, we are hearing groups and individuals cry out – “Kill the babies with the virus!” We see no compassion, no outcry to find a cure or an ethical vaccine, the answer offered is to end the lives of those who have (or may have) microcephaly. It is well known that preborn babies with Down Syndrome are routinely killed before birth. The world is quickly adding another reason to end the lives of human beings with a medical problem. STOPP International calls on all people and all governments to understand that babies in the womb are human beings created by God and, as such, should be treated for any illness they contract – not murdered.

Image/Brazil Health Ministry

American Life League president Judie Brown said in a statement: If this sounds like the first round in another battle among abortion advocates to press on for laws that diminish the dignity of the preborn child while exonerating acts that kill them as worthy of consideration, you are right on the mark.

The Zika Virus is a horrible threat to women, children and others, but when aborting a child is considered to be an antidote, there is clearly something wrong with the attitudes of those who should be at the forefront of developing an ethical vaccine to fight the virus rather than fighting it by killing possible victims.